SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

HIV/AIDS coordination committees were established in each district, comprising
the heads of relevant government departments and the police department, and
representatives of sex workers and people living with HIV. The committees developed
HIV prevention and care policies for government departments. They also provided
a platform through which sex workers could raise concerns such as violence and
harassment, and generate empathy towards sex workers among government officials
and police.
The programme worked in partnership with district police heads and sex workers to
deliver state-wide training to 12,000 police officers, representing over half of all police
personnel in the project districts. Training aimed to raise awareness of HIV, generate
empathy among police officials towards sex workers, and provide clarity regarding
the law and sex work.
A group of volunteer human rights lawyers worked with the sex worker community
to provide legal literacy, and bring perpetrators of violence to justice.
To address stigma, state-wide HIV awareness and sex worker sensitization training
was provided to over 2,000 journalists.
Sex workers were brought together through a process of community mobilization.
Community mobilization aimed to address powerlessness and isolation, and to
advocate against discrimination, stigma, wrongful arrest, violence and harassment.
The programme worked with human rights lawyers to deliver legal empowerment
workshops to 25,000 female sex workers across the state. To support sex workers who
had been subjected to violence, 24-hour crisis management teams were established,
comprising peer educators, lawyers and NGO project staff.
Kerala: Sex Workers Forum Kerala (SWFK) 196
SWFK organizes sex workers to advocate for human rights, runs drop-in-centres for streetbased
sex workers and provides homes for sex workers’ children. Some members of SWFK
also work in state-sponsored HIV prevention programmes. SWFK’s activities are aimed at
fighting stigma, police violence and harassment, and include:
participatory research on violence;
lobbying parliamentarians and the government to change the ITPA;
dialogue with the police on violence and harassment;
advocacy with the media; and
public protests and demonstrations.
Maharashta: Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad
Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP) is a collective of over 7,000 female sex workers based
in Sangli. 197 VAMP implements peer interventions in six districts, with technical support
south India: impact on health, and reductions in violence following an intervention program, BMC Public Health
10:476.
196 See: Thottiparambil S., (2005) Sex workers of Kerala, India: Moving beyond HIV/STI prevention Sexual
Health Exchange 1.
197 Pillai S., Seshu M., Shivda M., (2008) Embracing the rights of people in prostitution and sex workers, to
address HIV and AIDS effectively Gender & Development Vol. 16, No. 2, July 2008.
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